


Past the Mission

by paperiuni



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Smut, ficadayinmay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-08
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-24 01:42:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1587014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperiuni/pseuds/paperiuni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On occasion, things do go right. Tali and Garrus steal a moment after a mission. Fluff and smut, plain and simple. (Set during ME3.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Past the Mission

The decon seemed to take ages. Tali fidgeted in her seat, then giggled again at James's boisterous re-enactment of Shepard charging that last brute with an overheating shotgun and blasting the damn thing dead with a biotic shockwave born of sheer grit. And, James added, a dash of good old insanity. Tali fell easily against Garrus's side, as giddy and free as you only could be after a skin-of-our-teeth victory that had still gained them everything they'd gone planetside to get.

The fuel depot overrun by the Reapers was liberated, Alliance forces were on the way in, and the worst of their hurts were Garrus's twisted spur and some sore ribs Shepard had earned meleeing the brute. Even the commander, generally more reserved in her elation, chuckled at the heroic conclusion.

Garrus, his subvocals humming with the satisfaction that his tart comment to James did not betray, put a hand on the small on her back. It settled there like a promise, as if he'd picked right on up on the undertow of her thoughts. She couldn't remember when she'd last felt so alive, her blood rushing and her senses open even in the constraints of her suit--not that she would have minded it coming off in short succession. Once the decon was done.

Finally the inner doors of the shuttle bay slid open. They exited the cabin, shouted their thanks to Cortez and tolerated another, personal decon screening before entering the shuttle bay proper. James waved, gave Garrus a last companionable shove in the shoulder and stayed to help Cortez run the post-mission checks on the Kodiak.

Shepard, for her part, made her way to the lift and punched the button for the crew deck. Hastening into the lift after her and Garrus, Tali took care to keep an arm's length to him now. She wasn't quite sure how much Shepard suspected--though if she suspected enough, she was unlikely to mind--but even so, privacy suddenly clashed with the wild indulgence singing under her skin.

She could wait. At least until the main battery. Bless her visor. Bless even the fact that while Garrus was expressive for a turian, he had a fair streak of their inherent discipline. She could still feel the steady pressure of his hand low on her back.

They left Shepard at the med bay door with promises of reports in due course and drinks in the observation lounge once they were all off shift. In practical terms that meant, once it was late enough in the day to steal Shepard for an hour without causing a diplomatic incident somewhere in the allied forces.

She gave Garrus a sidelong glance. Their new accord was still fresh and malleable, and no matter how bold she felt, doubt was not entirely extracted from the equation. They'd all felt the exhilaration, the euphoria of a mission well accomplished, the verve of working in unison. It just poured out in different ways with different squadmates--however your particular bond shaped it.

Her answer came with the whirr of the lock behind them, shutting the door from casual entry. Now, she dared to breathe deep and reach up close, her gloved hands on his cheek, on the collar of the armour, pulling him down. In answer, his hands went to the collar of her helmet and popped open the clamps. Tinged with ozone and gunmetal, the dry air hit her in a silent, bracing waft.

Reasonably safe, she reminded herself. She'd done this before. They'd done this before, often enough that it was no longer tentative, though she couldn't yet name the shape things were taking in the longer run. She had run her checks and taken her antibiotics, her system still swimming with the full array of combat safeguards.

They could handle one turian. Her hair was wound up in the tight bun, but she swept a strand from her temple and closed the distance. Her mouth skimmed his scarred mandible, no gentle lingering this time, but a plain hint of teeth. He gave a hushed, encouraging mutter, clearer in his subharmonics than in the near-silent breath. She shifted to get at the latches of his armour: if they were opting for nakedness, then she demanded an equal share.

Soon enough, there were armour pieces in a semi-orderly heap across the floor and the top of his bunk, reserved for the more delicate elements of her suit. As he twisted open the last of the seals at her hip, she pushed free to shed the rest of the oversuit.

Garrus leaned down, caught the back of her head in the curve of a taloned hand, and pressed brow to brow, nose to nose with her. It was the first pause in their mutual scramble to get closer. She tiptoed to dwell on it for a moment.

It could be a straightforward thing between them, but it could not be simple. The difference remained a touch elusive, because of course she had loved Garrus before. Loved him as a friend, admired him as a fellow soldier, respected him as a peer--though not to his face, his head being big enough as it was, as Joker was wont to say.

This, however, had to be faced, one way or another. It was by its nature a thing that went down to the heart of you.

Right now, she knew what cut through her: the sheer joy of survival, the raw desire to have him because she _could_. She arched into the stroke of his hand down her spine, studying the luminous patterns on her skin, the thinner, more vulnerable textures there. Her heart hammered a fast, staccato pace against her ribs. In kind, she slid her palms down his side where the plating joined that on his back, and found the softer place in between, the seam of skin where her fingers could just fit.

"Teasing, huh?" He sounded remarkably even. That was unfair: by the time she would break into stammers and half-sentences, he most often remained so articulate he might have recited poetry if he so wished.

"I don't know." She tried to put it as a challenge. "What _is_ the plan this time?" Tried, too, not to let up a whimper as he nibbled at her neck, careful, impossibly so, sharp teeth on her tender skin sending fire washing through her.

"You pretty much climb in my lap in the shuttle and have no scheme laid out? Would that I could believe you so innocent."

" _Well_ ", she murmured, "I could tell you you've--you've seen through my ruse, if that'd get us down to business a bit faster."

"Thought you enjoyed taking the long way."

"I do," she agreed, reaching up again. Whatever the plan was, it would involve bridging the height difference. "Usually."

"Guess it's not an everyday situation." He never stopped stroking across her back, in slow, toe-curling sweeps, knowing now where to linger to make her gasp. She retorted best as she could, let her hands roam down the side of his keelbone and to the softer skin of his hip. Standing up, reaching his face was a bit of a hassle, but she'd learned there were other responsive places on his plated, wiry frame.

"No," she said.

He might mean the mission before: it had been a good day, a job smoothly done. But she also meant the charge in the air, the sparks that seemed to leap at every point of contact, so unlike their usual, more exploratory rhythms.

She shifted at his palm on the inline of her hip, at his sure, searching fingers. Her teeth digging into her lower lip, she drew and held a breath.

"Garrus." Her voice faltered a little.

"Any time you work this out, you can let me know." He nuzzled her bound hair, and she knew without looking that her skin was shimmering where he traced along her the luminescent markings, warming to the contact.

"You're letting me decide?" She tried to sound flattered, though her suspicion was that like her, he was simply playing. As firmly as they both were headed the same way, some of the familiar one-upping extended to this new dimension of their relationship.

"Just trying to be clear." His tone was all teasing and dry caprice, but the way he stopped, hand on her thigh, lent another nuance to his words.

Tali chuckled and relented, not least because she wasn't quite sure how much longer her knees could go without buckling. "Fine. You need it spelled out, I'll spell it out." She had to tug him to bend, but he came easily, letting her drag her mouth over the smooth hollow of his throat. "I want you, you idiot. So put me to the wall and have me if you're planning to."

The untrammelled surge of sound from his throat, low and resonant and needy, made relenting so entirely worth it. Gladly, pliantly, she let him lift her, her legs fitting into his hips, the wall cool and solid against her arched back. They moved together in hitches and dips and starts. Bracing herself with one hand, she pulled him close with the other, kissed the side of his mouth, and he raised her up to nip at the narrow shell of her ear.

In a wavering, building concert of shifts and movements, noises and gasps, she recalled to herself and to him that they had, once again, made it back. That they had come through together to live this moment, this ragged spell of sweetness against the impossible odds they faced.

Afterwards, she stumbled back onto slightly trembling legs. They made room on the bunk among the scattered parts of armour and armament to come down gently. And, tumbled against the side of Garrus's chest, the dust and copper smell of him on her uncovered skin, Tali felt her heart calm and center, and rest easy for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Umbralpilot is becoming my usual suspect for these ficlets. Thanks for the cheerleading yet again, darling.
> 
> I borrowed the idea of bioluminescent quarians from Tumblr user reegar's excellent post on quarian headcanon, so I owe thanks to them for that.


End file.
